Cody Sleiter wasn't trying to be a public health hero at the Iowa State Fair Thursday morning. He just saw a convenient way to gain protectionfrom the dangerous new form of the coronavirus — and to get his mom to quit bugging him about it.
Sleiter, 26, of Webster City was the first person to take advantage of Hy-Vee's offer of COVID vaccinations at the Iowa State Fair. He noted the price was right.
"That's such an Iowa thing: Free stuff at the fair," he joked.
But the COVID shots weren't as popular as the free pens, fans, stickers, temporary tattoos and other trinkets being handed out at booths all over the fairgrounds Thursday.
Vaccine demand has plummeted in Iowa and across the nation duringthe past three months. About 36% of eligible Iowans remain unvaccinated, even as the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus causes a resurgence of infections and hospitalizations.The Iowa Department of Public Health this week reported a bit of a rebound in demand, but vaccination desireremains far below what it was in April.
The lack of enthusiasm was evident Thursday at the pair of colorful Hy-Vee vaccination trailers set up west of the fair's Varied Industries Building.
Scores of fairgoers walked past the trailers, but few stopped.
One woman asked if she could have a Band-Aid for her daughter’s blister.
Another passerby called out that she’d already been vaccinated.
“Love to hear it!” replied Drake University pharmacy student and Hy-Vee intern Zoe Dittmar, who gave the woman a thumbs-up from her seat at a registration table.
Dittmar and a half-dozen other staffers started offering the free vaccinations at 10 a.m. Thursday, the fair's opening day. The staffers were wearing bright red T-shirts reading, "This year's fair brought to you by the COVID vaccine!"
Theysat and sweated for nearly an hour before Sleiter stepped up and agreed to be their first shot-taker.
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His mom, Lynne Sleiter, received her COVID shots in the spring, and she’d been urging him for months to follow suit. He’d agreed that he should get one, especially since he routinely enters other people’s houses in his job delivering appliances. But he’d hesitated, partly because he wondered about the speed with which the vaccines had been developed.
Also, he admitted, “I don’t like needles.”
Mom and son were walking down the sidewalk at the fair Thursday morning when they saw the red and white signs offering free COVID shots, plus $10 Hy-Vee gift cards to people who completed their vaccinations.
“I thought, ‘You know what? I’ll do it,’” he said. “Why not join the crowd?”
The staff explained everything, including common vaccine side effects: A day or so of fatigue, sore arm and possible fever. They told him those were just signs of an immune system properly ramping up.
The young man chose the Johnson & Johnson version, because it requires just one dose. Within a few minutes, he’d filled out his paperwork, gone into one of the trailers and received his vaccination.
The shot itself was no big deal, he declared as he came out of the trailer.
“It just felt like a mosquito bite,” he said.
“See, I told you!” teased Ally Klein, a Drake pharmacy student and Hy-Vee intern who’d helped check him in.
Cody Sleiter suggested to his mom that she buy him a root beer float as a reward. She gave a classic parent-at-the-fair reply: “Maybe later.”
As they sat in nearby shade for the required 15 minutes after the shot, Lynne Sleiter said she was glad her son would finally be protected from the coronavirus. But she said she was frustrated by the apathy shown by many other people, even as the pandemic regains strength.
“I hate to say it, but it feels like the unvaccinated are depending on the vaccinated,” she said.
The vaccine stand’s next customer was fair volunteer Brian Dawson, 57, of Newton.
Dawson said he’d wondered if the shots were worthwhile. But his girlfriend, who is a nurse, set him straight by describing patients she’d seen suffering with COVID.
“She told me I really don’t want to get it,” he said.
By midday, just a handful of people had received their shots at the Hy-Vee trailers. Dittmar, the pharmacy student, said she wasn’t surprised.
“We’d all kind of known that it might not be everyone’s favorite thing – to get a vaccination at the fair,” she said.
Dittmar said later Thursday afternoon that business picked up a bit, but still didn't amount to a rush.
She said she hopes even if they decide not to get a COVID shot at the fair, passers-by will have heard the message that the shots are safe and effective, and will consider seeking one at a clinic or pharmacy after they return home.
She said she’s optimistic demand will pick up as kids prepare to go back to school and as word spreads of the threat posed by the delta variant. She also said hesitation may ebb soon, once federal regulators grant full licensure to the vaccines instead of emergency use authorization.
In the meantime, she and other staffers will be standing ready to give free shots at the Hy-Vee’s fair stand, every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
More:
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- Iowa State Fair weather: Expect it to be 'relatively nice ... relatively dry'
Tony Leys covers health care for the Register. Reach him at tleys@registermedia.com or 515-284-8449.
